​ Artist Dace Strausa

“I have never thought why horses are so important for me because it just is so. It has been this way for as long as I can remember. I like horses with all my senses – to touch warm smooth skin, silky mane, to feel the huge power of horse muscles under the skin. The smell of horse breath, the smell of the skin, the magnificent beauty and grace of the horse and eye catching movements. Sounds of hooves of a moving horse or very calming sounds of horse grazing, the taste of the wind when galloping on horseback in full speed. All that I try to capture in my photographs and paintings.”

Dace Strausa majored in horse breeding at the Moscow Timiryazev Agricultural Academy. The academy has a horse-breeding museum with an extensive art collection, including paintings and relevant writings. She liked to visit the museum often. In-depth studies of horse anatomy, behaviour, breeding helping a lot in the process of photographing and painting these gorgeous creatures.In order to do something professionally, you must reach a level when you can do something so well that people are ready to pay for it, being aware that they cannot do it themselves. Dace has studied pre-academic courses at the Latvian State Art Academy. Dace’s favourite painting technique is oil painting using different kind of other materials. The surface of the painting almost always is an oil colour even deeper layers are acrylic colours, texture acrylic paste and sometimes some natural materials such as grass, sand.

“I don't know what message people who see my paintings are getting. Perhaps everybody sees something different. We people and animals both are creation of nature and a part of the same. But people tend to think that they are the best. That is horribly arrogant. No other animal apart from mankind has done so many stupid things. I want to remind that horses are not just a sport or some other equipment but a living and very clever creation of the mother nature.”